Pfizer initiates virtual volunteering campaign to bridge isolation gap for community

Pharma News: As Australia kicks off National Volunteer Week 2020 (18 to 24 May 2020), themed on ‘Changing Communities, Changing Lives’, Pfizer Australia is preparing differently due to COVID-19 – replacing the usual face to face recognition for volunteers with charity partners, with a renewed drive to mobilise more volunteers than ever in a virtual volunteering campaign.

Pfizer has partnered with Australian tech startup Communiteer, whose technology and crowdsourcing platform enables organisations to offer remote volunteering to support vulnerable communities.

“When the reality of the risks of COVID-19 took hold and our workforce swiftly moved to working from home, face to face volunteering was temporarily suspended. We immediately began looking for how we could direct our caring colleagues towards virtual volunteering for social impact”, said Pfizer Australia Manager for External Relations, Leigh Simmonds.

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“We hope this will support the many community partners we already work with, such as The Smith Family, Variety the Children’s Charity, Ronald McDonald House and The Red Cross, with our 1,700 caring colleagues. Pfizer colleagues are ready, willing and able to help and it is great to offer them a way to stay engaged in the community safely”, said Pfizer Australia and New Zealand Managing Director, Anne Harris.

Communiteer CEO and Founder Victor Lee said that in a time when isolation is a necessity for our protection, our most vulnerable community members, who were already isolated before COVID-19, are feeling even more isolated.

“This campaign on which we are partnering with Pfizer will target the needs of our most isolated community members through the community organisations that support them and bring people closer together,” he said.

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